


In the Quiet

by oxymoronassoc



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 09:23:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11158968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oxymoronassoc/pseuds/oxymoronassoc
Summary: Sam's Reaction WRT "Crossroads II"Originally Written 4-14-2007





	In the Quiet

He was in the way, but he couldn't move. The com crackled again, static loud over the chatter, but he knew what he'd heard. Everyone knew what they'd heard. She was alive. He didn't know what to say, sat there mouth gaping slightly and wondered if Joe's was even open yet.

Chief was shouting orders and the crew lurched slowly back into motion, shell-shocked eyes staring disbelieving for long moments at their clipboards. Sam stood in the middle of it, a rock they flowed around. Chief came over, spoke softly to him, placed a wrench into his hand and pushed him towards a raptor that wasn't getting off the ground anytime soon. 

Sam poked at it uselessly, the roaring in his ears deafening him to the chatter of the crew, of the com. He slumped down on a step-stool and buried his face in his hands. How do I tell her?

His leg finally began to protest the position and he rose, stumbling towards the exit of the deck, mumbling an excuse about needing the head to a technician who brushed past him. He came around the back of the raptor and there she was.

His feet stopped working on their own accord, coming to rest with a slight squeak of rubber on flightdeck that no one but he could hear. That was, if he wasn't still deafened by the roaring in his ears. How do I tell her? He thought, his mind flashing through dozens of scenarios and rejecting them all. He wasn't sure he could lie to her, but at the same time he knew that the knowledge would destroy her. Them. Him. 

He watched her as she trailed a hand along the side of her bird, hugged her friends, laughed gently with them, looked compassionately upon them in their shock. His eyes tracked Apollo—no, Lee, as he made his way quickly across the hanger deck towards her. Towards Kara.

He saw them embrace, in front of the hanger deck and everyone who was filtering down out of the ship to see the return of the prodigal son. Daughter. The sun and the moon Galactica set its life by.

Their eyes lingered on each other and even from where he stood half in the shadow of a raptor, he could see the hunger. But that had always been there. That didn't change anything.

He had changed everything.

He watched her become swarmed by the crew, rank and file ignored, as each and every one of them assured that she, their touchstone, was alive, that this wasn't some dream they were having; the sort that seem pleasant until you awaken and then they seem more awful than any nightmare. 

He watched them find hope and courage, to find miracles and a belief in the gods. He couldn't tell her. It wouldn't just destroy him. Them. Her. It'd destroy everyone, everything.

He stepped out of the shadow of the Raptor. 

She watched him limp over, a smile alighting on her expressive face. "Sammy!" she crowed, pulling away from Lee, from the crew.

He pulled her tight against his chest, inhaling the smell of her hair, and wished he'd never have to let go.


End file.
